


Sound and Fury

by chlodobird



Series: The Dragon of Hell's Kitchen [14]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Matt Murdock, Canon Rewrite, Gen, Happy Ending, Infinity War and Endgame can kiss my ass, Temporary Character Death, as always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:26:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25866643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chlodobird/pseuds/chlodobird
Summary: Matt Murdock: Dragon, attorney, and part-time (okay, maybe full-time) vigilante-slash-mentor. Unfortunately for Foggy's blood pressure, he and the Spideys get tangled up in space shenanigans when Thor finds out what threat has been lurking behind the scenes. The Defenders, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and other assorted heroes must come together to fight Thanos, but who will win?(Spoilers in tags, be warned!)
Relationships: Luke Cage & Jessica Jones & Matt Murdock & Danny Rand, Matt Murdock & Avengers Team, Matt Murdock & Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Matt Murdock & Peter Parker, Matt Murdock & Thor, Matt Murdock/Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Miles Morales & Matt Murdock
Series: The Dragon of Hell's Kitchen [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660564
Comments: 17
Kudos: 135





	1. Previously On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the big showdown you've (hopefully) all been waiting for, so here's a handy-dandy "Previously On" for the past thirteen fics in the series!

We open with a Defenders rewrite- turns out Matt’s a dragon, with all the territorial tendencies towards NYC and hoarding of friends that it entails! Except, as it turns out, the Hand is able to turn dragons into Black Skies by taking them away from their territory and destroying their hoards. It’s what they did to Elektra when she ‘died’, and they want to get a chance to turn Matt into a Black Sky to use him as a weapon. Fortunately, he starts figuring out the dragon thing, and he and the other Defenders manage to take out the leaders of the Hand without him or Danny (and by extension, the dragon bones under Midland Circle) being used to help the Hand. Stick doesn’t get killed, and Midland Circle doesn’t get destroyed, so Matt and Elektra don’t get buried. Elektra figures out who Matt’s mom is (there’s only so many dragons in the world) and he starts talking to her a bit. The Defenders stick together, and Matt and Foggy start dating and eventually move in together. 

Soon after that, Spider-Man comes into Hell’s Kitchen. Matt helps him out in a fight and decides to start training him (because for god’s sake, how has no one taught him how to throw a punch?) and teaches Peter how to control his enhanced senses better, too. May appreciates the help and Peter becomes an intern at Nelson, Murdock & Page. (Fisk gets shanked in jail, and although it’s definitely cause for celebration, Vanessa Fisk takes over his criminal empire.)

It’s about a year later that Miles Morales comes into the picture. Matt and Peter and destroying Oscorp’s dragon research, and Miles snuck in to figure out why he was getting Spider-Man powers. Peter brings him along on the exit and Matt figures “eh, what’s one more kid at this point? Sure, I guess I’ll help train him if he wants to learn”. Plus, Matt finally decides to reveal to NYC that a dragon is protecting it, instead of letting half-hearted rumors about something sneaking around alleys get ignored or laughed off.

However, a dragon draws the Avengers’ attention. They send Clint to recruit him, but fail miserably. In this AU, Thor sets up New Asgard without being waylaid by Thanos (who is still moving slowly, unlike in the MCU) and when the Avengers contact him about a dragon, he gets curious, and shows up in Hell’s Kitchen. Matt, Peter, and Miles come across him and Thor explains that he knows a few dragons in New Asgard. He introduces them to Heather Douglas, aka Moondragon, and she explains to Matt that dragons were formed by the infinity stones. She’s a mind dragon, and Matt’s a reality dragon.

Soon, Steve, Nat, and Clint interrupt a HYDRA deal without realizing there was Hand there too, and the Defenders step in. After the fight, Steve asks them to join the Avengers, this time telling them that the Avengers are hearing rumors that Something is Coming, and they’ll need all hands on deck. The Defenders agree to be emergency-only backup, and over the next few months, Matt trusts Thor, and then Clint and Natasha with his secret identity. Plus, Miles finds out Aaron is the Prowler, and they work out a system of tip-offs and staged fights and ignored heists (that target businessmen with cruel practices and policies)

A year after Miles joins the team, the spiders and Matt find out about the multiverse and go explore a little bit. Matt and Foggy adopt a kitten and get engaged, and then Matt and Miles go to Gwen’s verse to find some backup for her. Shortly afterwards, Miles tells his parents that he’s gay and Spider-Man. They’re fine with the former, and Matt helps them come to terms with the latter. Miles gets a boyfriend, and a couple months later, Peter graduates high school. Of course, that’s when Thor comes back from his trip to space looking for info on the Mysterious Something. Thanos is coming. Uh-oh.


	2. Previously On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Thor's turn in the spotlight, but we'll get to see Earth soon. In the meantime, is there anyone who can't resist his heart of gold?

Thor left the bar in a hurry, the Fates nipping at his heels. His gut was leaden, and he could feel the trouble stirring. Perhaps the informant was wrong. Why would the mystery man attack Nidavellir?

It was a fool’s errand. But . . .

He had a bad feeling about this. Once he was free of the traffic in the bustling bazaar, he summoned the Bifrost and let the glassy portal envelop him.

When the lights cleared from his vision, he frowned. Nidavellir was darker than he remembered, but in the hallway, he couldn’t put his finger on why.

“Hello?” Thor called. He did his best to ignore the worry creeping up his chest to weigh on his lungs and breath. “Anyone?”

“This forge shouldn’t be so dark,” he mused to himself. Window. He could check on the star, make sure it’s not . . . well, he couldn’t think of anything harmless that could stop a star, but he was still hoping for it.

Why was it so gods-damned  _ dark _ ?

When he peered out into space, a pang went through him. It was too late. The star was cold.

“Thor?” a dwarf bellowed.

“Eitri?” The metalworker came into view, haggard and hopeless, and Thor turned away from the ruined star to focus fully on his friend. “What happened here?”

“We were attacked,” he muttered.

Thor’s heart dropped. He was supposed to defend them.

As if he was following the same line of thought, Eitri shook his head, and said bitterly, “You came to us for a weapon to protect Asgard while you rebuilt. We knew you were struggling, and we didn’t heed your warning.”

“But what  _ happened _ ?” Thor repeated, tension building in his muscles.

Eitri took a labored breath, and began, “The Mad Titan Thanos attacked us. He demanded a conduit for the Infinity Stones. I obliged, hoping he would spare us, but he slaughtered half of our three hundred men. He destroyed our forges, and ruined my hands.”

“I’m sorry,” Thor said quietly. “Is there anything else? Anything I can do to help?”

Eitri’s expression darkened. “Kill that bastard.”

Thor nodded solemnly and summoned the Bifrost to take him back home, to New Asgard. The last thing he saw before being swamped by lights and colors was Eitri turning away, his hands useless at his sides.

As soon as he was back on Earth, Thor dug his phone out of his pocket and called Loki.

“What do you need?” his brother sighed.

“Thanos has destroyed half of Nidavellir. I need information.”

There was silence on the line for a moment, and Loki finally responded, “I’ll place another few layers of glamour and protective spells on New Asgard. Make this dreadful place you call a home a bit safer.”

Thor winced at the hint of fear under the facade of indifference. “I know you ran into him. Before New York.” After you fell from the Bridge, Thor left out. “I need to know what you do. He’s coming to find Infinity Stones. Lucky the Tesseract was destroyed, but-”

“It wasn’t.” The confession sounded like pulling teeth. “Brother, if Thanos is coming, perhaps you should consider the idea that you might not be able to stop him?”

“That sorcerer, Strange- I think he has a stone, and Vision has one too. Thanos is coming to Earth, and I won’t abandon her people.”

Loki was quiet, but when he spoke, Thor recognized his planning voice, and smiled. “He doesn’t have to come to Earth.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s stones that aren’t on Earth. Perhaps we can move the ones that are here to another place. A more secure planet.”

“Maybe,” Thor said thoughtfully.

While he was mulling over Loki’s words, his brother spoke again. “At the very least, we need to go find the hidden stones so we can guard them from Thanos. Reclaim the aether from the Collector, and find the power and soul stones.”

Thor nodded along, even though Loki couldn’t see him. “I’ll go. Do me a favor, and call the Avengers, will you? If we are to protect Earth’s people, we will need their assistance.”

Loki sighed. “Fine, but you owe me.”

“Nope!” Thor said in as cheerful a voice as he could muster after the day’s revelations, and hung up.

To the Collector he went.

Thor took the Bifrost to Knowhere, and kept his axe close at hand. The galactic crossroads could be dangerous.

No matter. He was dangerous too.

He pushed through the crowds, and got to the Collector's domain fairly quickly. He strode in without bothering to announce his presence, and froze.

When Asgard sent the aether to be stored here, Thor didn't go himself. Now that he was finally here, it was a shock to see the Collector storing people. It burned in his gut. This wasn't right. Stormbreaker was in his hands instantly, and he was about to start breaking open cages when his mind caught up to his instincts.

Thor reluctantly stowed his axe away again. Information and the aether first, then a prison break second.

Words trickled down from a higher level, and he frowned. He would have to wait until the others left in order to retrieve the stone.

"You don't have anything to fight a Titan?" a woman's voice said angrily.

Wait.

Thor rushed up the stairs to get to the main room the Collector received customers in, and said, to the surprise of the three people in the room, "You're fighting Thanos?"

The blue woman's guns were in her hands before Thor could move another muscle, and the green woman pulled out swords equally quickly. Meanwhile, the Collector crept backwards, putting himself out of harm's way.

"Who's asking?" the green one said sharply. "And why?"

Thor put his hands up and kept his distance. "I'm Thor, of Asgard. I'm going to fight him too."

The women didn't relax, but the green one spoke again. "I'm Gamora. This is my sister, Nebula."

"We might be able to help each other out," he said, moving a little closer. When neither of them stabbed or shot in, he took another step. He stopped about ten feet away.

Gamora scrutinized him, and lowered her sword. "You're angry at him."

"He destroyed Nidavellir. Hurt friends I have there. And he's going to be coming for Earth."

Both women straightened at his words, and traded a look. Gamora reached into her pocket, and Thor tensed, but she just pulled out a communicator. "Peter?"

He couldn't hear the other end of the conversation, but Gamora asked, "How attached are you to Earth?" Another second passed. "I thought so. I'll explain later."

She hung up, and motioned for Nebula to put her weapons away. "Come with us after you finish your business here, and we can discuss this more in a place with fewer curious ears," she said, glaring at the Collector.

Thor nodded, and said, "You can stay, if you like." He turned to the Collector and told him, calmly, "Give me the aether."

He hesitated.

"Thanos will be coming for it. Do you really want to be in his way?" Nebula asked coldly.

The Collector winced, and sighed, "Come this way."

Thor and the two aliens followed him deep into the heart of his home, past shelves and safes and displays and cages. Finally, he stopped in front of a safe, bypassed security, and reached in. Thor's eyes widened when he saw the glowing read container. Knowing what it was made the energy radiating off it more obvious.

"It's yours."

Thor reached out for it, but Gamora beat him to it. "Hey!" he said, hand drifting down towards his axe.

Nebula gave him a withering look. "Do you know how to solidify it, idiot?"

He conceded the point with a nod of his head, and watched as Gamora closed her eyes and opened the container. She touched it, and it coalesced into a single, solid rock. When her eyes opened again, a little reluctantly, she tucked it into a pocket.

Thor's jaw dropped. "How did it not possess you?"

"Intent. If someone doesn't know its nature, it can hurt them, but I know its history, and told it to take its true form."

He weighed her words for a moment, thinking of Jane, and nodded. "One last thing before we go," he said decisively. "I won't let him keep people in cages."

The Collector opened his mouth to protest, but Nebula moved in a flash, and knocked him out. “I agree.”

Thor nodded, and the trio worked their way through the area, breaking open tubes and collecting the people in a mass behind them.

“What are we going to do with them?” Gamora asked quietly.

He looked over the crowd. Small enough for the Bifrost to transport them. “While your crew gets here, we can drop them off in New Asgard. They’ll be safe.”

The women nodded, and Thor summoned the Bifrost again. The soft gasps in the crowd behind him made the lights seem brighter, more colorful than usual.

He left them in Heimdall’s capable hands, and brought himself and the sisters back to Knowhere. By the time they got back, the others had already arrived. The strange team stared him down, and he waved, injecting as much cheery friendliness into the motion as he could.

“Who are you?” a short being said. They managed to make the question an accusation.

“I’m Thor. We have a common enemy.”

“We do?” a human-looking man said curiously.

Gamora stepped forward. “Peter, we have to stop Thanos. Thor is helping.”

The human, Peter, didn’t look thrilled, but nodded anyway.

The grey Kylosian laughed. “Finally! I will have my revenge on the man who orchestrated the death of my family.”

The Tree spoke up, at that point. “Let’s fucking go, then.”

All the others exclaimed in annoyance, and Thor added, “That’s not appropriate language for a Groot of your age.”

“You speak Groot?” the small one said incredulously.

Thor shrugged. “It was an elective on Asgard.”

“How long did it take you to learn?” the insectoid woman asked.

“So what’s the plan?” Nebula interjected, getting them back on track.

“We have to find the power stone and the soul stone before Thanos can.”

The team exchanged looks, and after a couple seconds, Gamora said decisively. “I’m telling him. He trusted me to carry the stone he took from the Collector.”

None of the others disagreed (out loud), and she turned to Thor. “We had an encounter with the power stone. It’s kept on Xandar.”

“We have to get it,” Thor said in alarm .”They cannot stand against the Mad Titan. Not if he was able to make it past Nidavellir’s entire arsenal.”

The small one chuckled gleefully. “Nidavellir is real?”

“Very real,” he said grimly. “Half the dwarves who live there were slaughtered, and the star was extinguished.”

“Oh.”

“This is why we have to stop him,” Gamora insisted.

The Kylosian growled, “I will tear out his spine and feed it to a herd of galraxian phragmites.”

“I’m Rocket, by the way,” the small one said dryly. “The bloodthirsty one there is Drax, and this is Groot. Bug girl here is Mantis. You already met Gamora and Nebula, and the idiot over there is our fearless leader, Peter Quill.”

“We call ourselves the Guardians,” Quill said. Thor raised an eyebrow, but didn’t give him a hard time about it. Not when he’d been on a superhero team called the Revengers (never again. Loki could pick the names from now on.)

They piled into Peter’s ship, and Thor found himself poking around in the cabinets. They had a two hour flight ahead of them, and the impatience was already gnawing at him.

Worse than the impatience was the doubt creeping in, as it did often in moments of quiet. What if he did the wrong thing, leaving Asgard behind again? Last time he left, Hela invaded. The time before that, Loki usurped Odin and let the Nine Realms fall into chaos. He had to protect his people! They were his responsibility. His to guard and help.

But this was the best way to do that, right? Between Loki, Heimdall, Heather, and Valkyrie (especially Heimdall), New Asgard was being run efficiently. He had to find Thanos, or Asgard would suffer anyway when the madman got his wish- whatever it was.

He was poking at an interesting looking doll when he heard a noise behind him and spun.

Nebula.

“My sister is busy being sappy with the human, and no one else is comfortable walking in on me,” she said bluntly. “I want to talk about your brother.”

“Loki?” Thor said, frowning. “What about him?”

“Thanos captured him, at one point.”

“I know,” Thor said, guardedly. But how did  _ she _ know?

She kept her distance from him when she spoke. “Gamora and I . . . We were raised by Thanos. She was taken at age seven. I was taken from my home when I was five.”

She looked like she expected an attack, but Thor stayed still. “I’m sorry you two had to go through that,” he offered.

“That’s not my point. What I’m trying to say is, I was there. I could have stopped the Other and Thanos from torturing him.” She took a deep breath. “Tell him I’m sorry.”

Thor looked at her, but he didn’t see any insincerity. “He doesn’t like talking about what Thanos did to him. I think when this is all over, you two should find time to talk. It might be good for you both,” he said seriously.

She shrugged, and turned to go abruptly. Too much genuine emotion, apparently. Before she could make it out of the room, Thor called, “And Nebula?” She stopped, but didn’t turn around. “Like I said, he doesn’t talk about it much, but he’s never mentioned resenting you. If you had saved him, you would have been dooming yourself. I’m glad you both made it out in the end.”

She nodded sharply, and practically ran out.

Thor did hope she and Loki could talk sometime. Though, both of them seemed allergic to emotions,so perhaps it wouldn’t work out as he envisioned. Maybe later he’d ask Gamora how she dealt with a stubborn, stabby sibling.

A couple of wormholes later, they landed on Xandar. Thor was the first one off, and did his best to dredge up half-forgotten memories of visiting the planet as a child. Here goes. He confidently set off in the direction of the main government building, but behind him, Rocket scoffed. “This way, genius.”

Whoops. “Of course. Lead on then.”

An hour and five hundred credits in bribes later, the Guardians were standing in front of Nova Prime Rael, Denarian Dey at her side. “Why do you require the stone?” she said cooly.

Thor grimaced. “It’s not safe here.”

She opened her mouth to disagree, but Gamora interrupted. “Your fleets are still depleted from the battle with Ronan, and your people are scared. Thanos would tear through you in pursuit of the stones.”

Rael scrutinized the group, and turned to Dey. “You have spent more time with them than most. What do you think?”

He sighed. “They’re assholes, but I think they’re right. And I’ve heard of the Asgardians. They can hold Thanos off a hell of a lot better than we can.”

(Thor chose not to mention the whole Hela and Surtur thing)

“You think this threat is real?”

“I do, ma’am.”

She faced the Guardians again, and nodded regally. “Very well. We will entrust the stone to you, Thor Odinson.”

“I’m honored,” he said, inclining his head.

Rael snapped her fingers, and Dey vanished into the maze of hallways. Ten awkward minutes later (during which Peter seemed to avoid a lot of eye contact with various guards, who were glaring at him), Dey emerged from the hall and held out a silvery orb.

“Don’t open it unless you have to,” he warned.

“No,” Peter said quickly. “Check it’s in there. I pulled the same trick on Yondu.”

Thor shrugged, and said apologetically, “Sorry, but I’ve got to trust Quill on this one.” He cracked the orb open just enough for a soft purple glow to spill out, and Gamora nodded at him. He closed it, and bowed slightly to Nova Prime.

“Thank you for your hospitality and your trust.”

Together the group made their way back to Quill’s ship. “Next is the soul stone, correct?” Mantis asked.

Thor opened his mouth to confirm, but Gamora cut him off. “No one knows where it is. It’s safer from Thanos if we leave it alone. These two stones had a trail.”

“Earth it is, then,” Thor shrugged. “There’s a group of superheroes there called the Avengers. They can help.”

Peter scoffed. “No hero is going to be as cool as Captain America was. I used to have his lunchbox.”

He frowned. “Steve is part of the Avengers.”

The human’s eyes widened. “He’s fucking  _ alive _ ? But the plane crashed!”

“He was frozen in ice and woke up in 2012.”

“I’m going to meet _ Captain America _ ?”

The Guardians seemed fairly bemused by Peter’s excitement. Must be a human thing. “When did you leave Earth?”

“Oh, I got abducted by aliens back in ‘88,” he said flippantly. “Never got around to heading back.” He suddenly sobered. “I wonder if my grandad is still alive.”

Gamora patted his arm. “We can stop by the farm after we fight Thanos.”

“Maybe we should do it before,” Thor pointed out. “If we fail, you might not get a chance.”

Everyone glared at him, and Rocket grumbled, “Way to bring down the mood.”

As they hurtled through space, headed for Earth, Thor retreated back to the room without anyone in it, and pulled out his communicator. The phone stayed in his pocket. He sent four short messages to Steve, and hoped the Avengers were ready for the fight.

EMERGENCY MEETING

I HAVE LEARNED WHAT THE THREAT IS

BRING ALL ALLIES POSSIBLE

EXTINCTION LEVEL THREAT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm finally back! This summer was fantastic, I learned a ton about boats and shit (i may or may not have a tallship au brewing in the back of my mind) but i'm SO READY to work on this rewrite. I've got 90% of act 1 done, and there's still a lot left after that. Hopefully I should get it posted soon, but we'll see how life goes! I hope you enjoyed, and please leave comments. i feed on them like a black hole devours stars.


	3. Act One: Be the Serpent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and co. must plan for Thanos. The only question is how.

Matt tilted his head at Foggy. “Is this it then? We’ve got a date?”

His fiancé’s heart started beating faster. “I think so. October 19th? It’s a Saturday.”

“We have a date!” Matt replied, a little awed. He was getting  _ married _ .

“And it won’t be so fucking hot in October,” Foggy said, fanning himself. “I hate June with all my heart.”

Matt grinned smugly. “I’m perfectly fine.”

Foggy groaned. “Goddamn dragon. Don’t come near me with your dumb warmth or I’ll jump out the nearest window. And you _ know _ I can’t parkour like you do.”

“Fine.” Matt held up his hands in playful surrender.

“So we’ve got a date. What next?”

“Invite list?” Matt suggested. “I’m pretty sure we have a good idea of who we want to invite, but it might be good to get it typed up.”

Foggy tapped away at his computer, and narrated, “Just opened up a new document to write down the names we pick. We’re keeping it small, like we talked about a few months ago, right?”

“Right. Only the best of the Nelson clan.”

“Got it. Parents, siblings, and our favorites only. No Great-Aunt Tabitha.”

Matt wrinkled his nose. “Isn’t she the homophobic one?”

“Unfortunately,” Foggy sighed. “There’s always one asshole relative. Even us Nelsons aren’t perfect.”

“So whichever Nelsons you decide are worthy, and Karen and Marci,” Matt listed. “Father Lantom and Maggie, and the vigilantes? Am I missing anyone?”

“Bess and Brett,” Foggy points out.

“Oh, duh,” he said, smacking his forehead. “Anyone else?”

“Are any of the multiverse folks going to come?”

Matt shook his head. “I don’t really know them well enough yet. Oh! Heather! We should invite her.”

“Oh, right! Yeah, of course.”

“So, about which Nelsons are coming- Meredith and Kelsey, for sure, right?”

“Yeah, they’re my favorite cousins!,” Foggy said, adding them to the list. “And we should invite their mom, too. I love Aunt Moira.”

Matt grinned fondly, thinking about all the times he went to a Nelson Thanksgiving. “I love your family.”

“Yeah, Aunt Maeve too, of course.”

“What about-” Matt started to say. He was interrupted by his burner phone ringing.

“Clint . . . Clint . . . Clint . . .”

He frowned over at it, sitting on the counter, and got up to grab it. “Sorry Foggy. Might be important.”

“It’s fine,” Foggy sighed. “He’s probably bleeding out in a dumpster somewhere. And hey, want to invite him and Nat?”

He nodded and picked up, giving Foggy a last apologetic glance before focusing. “Hello?”

“Hey, Matt,” the man said calmly. “Kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation.”

“What’s going on?”

“Too much that’s too confidential for over the phone. Can you gather your vigilante team and come to the Avengers HQ in Manhattan?”

Matt tilted his head. “Can you give me  _ any _ reasons to justify dragging us out of our busy personal lives? I’m trying to organize my wedding here, man.”

Clint sounded delighted when he said “You are?” but the heaviness in his voice returned quickly. “I know you guys are all busy. I’m sorry, man. But that thing we mentioned when we recruited all of you? The big spooky shit coming for Earth? Thor figured it out.”

Fuck. This couldn’t be good news. “We’ll be right over,” Matt said immediately, and hung up.

Foggy made a soft questioning noise, and Matt sighed. “Apparently, they figured out the mysterious threat to Earth that they’ve been trying to figure out for a year and a half. The thing they recruited us for. I almost forgot that the missions every few months have just been little side trips along the way.”

“You have to go,” Foggy said firmly. “I don’t like it, but they need you.”

Matt tilted his head at the computer that Foggy had typed the guest list into. “You sure?”

Foggy stood up and put his hands on Matt’s shoulders. “You drive me crazy, but you’ve got to do this. Go get your suit.”

Matt followed his fiancé’s directions, silently trying to figure out which vigilantes to call first and who would be better to leave for last. When he was finished getting changed, Foggy drew him in for a hug and a kiss goodbye. “Don’t forget to keep me updated. I love you.”

“I love you too, Fogs.”

He patted his pocket to check he had his burner phone, and gave Foggy one last grin. He’d be back soon.

Matt bounced across rooftops, calling Jessica first, because she would undoubtedly need the most time to come to terms with working with the Avengers again, then Peter and Miles, who both would need to make excuses and/or arguments to get their guardians to let them go fight in a major battle. Next, Colleen, to get her and Danny on board, and lastly Luke, who was pretty close to the Avengers HQ in Manhattan.

Once he was done with his calls, he shifted into a dragon, and was alighting on the roof of the office headquarters within minutes. It wasn’t nearly as big or as fancy as the compound upstate, but it was a convenient place for the Avengers to hold business in the city proper.

He changed back into his human form and headed for the elevator. “FRIDAY?”

“How may I assist you, Daredevil?”

“Where are the Avengers meeting to talk about the mission?”

She was silent for a second, then relayed, “Mr. Stark has instructed me to bring you to the fourteenth floor.”

Matt nodded, and the elevator smoothly sank down through the levels of the building. He grimaced slightly at the number of heartbeats waiting in the room, but steeled himself and walked into the large room when the elevator doors opened.

He stumbled slightly with the wave of power that hit him, and nausea hit him. There was a jumble of strange heartbeats and smells he hadn’t encountered before, and he took a moment to reorient himself using the heartbeats he was most familiar with.

Thor and Heather were here.

He nodded at the alien and dragon in acknowledgement, pushing down the slight dizziness, and used the heartbeats to snap the rest of the room into perspective. Aside from the normal Avengers he was used to working with, there was a cluster of people that had to be aliens. One of them was . . . a tree?

Weird.

He shook his head and tilted his head to survey the layout of the room. There was a giant oval table, set out with the right amount of chairs for the people who were already here and the number of Defenders that had worked with the Avengers in the past.

It was overwhelming, but Matt took a seat in one of the empty chairs that were clustered together and kept focusing. He had a handle on the people seated, by and large, but there were still a few spots in the room that radiated power. It wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable. He was almost . . . drawn to one of the spots, by a woman across the table to his right. It felt familiar.

He was shaken back into focusing on the moment when Natasha took charge of the meeting and said, “We’ll wait for the others to arrive before we get into things.”

Matt nodded absentmindedly, still trying to figure out the people he wasn’t familiar with. What the fuck was that small one covered in fur?

Luke was the second one of the Defenders to arrive, and he took a seat a couple chairs down from Matt. Peter was next, and he stole the chair in between Matt and a man who had some strange magic woven around him and in his cloak He carried one of the objects that were so foreign yet felt right.

Peter snorted and muttered quietly, “This isn’t going to end well with this many people.”

“Bets on who starts a fistfight first?”

“No way. Too many wild cards,” Peter said after a moment of thought.

“Well, want to bet on groups then? Avengers, aliens, or us?”

“Hm, five bucks on the Avengers.”

Matt tilted his head appraisingly, and said, barely louder than a breath, “Deal. I’m going to go aliens.”

“Your loss. Wow, there’s so many cool people here.”

Another couple minutes of awkward silence was ended by the elevator sliding open smoothly and the rest of the Defenders spilling out, chattering to each other.

Miles snagged the other seat next to Matt. “Sorry we’re late, we were waiting out front for you guys and it took us a while to realize you all just headed straight up. Anything happened so far?”

He shook his head, and at the far end of the table, Natasha cleared her throat.

The room fell silent begrudgingly, and she said pointedly, “I’m Natasha. This is just a briefing to pool our information. It is  _ not _ a discussion, and right now, this is not a democracy.”

There was rustling, but no one objected, and Natasha sounded a little more relaxed when she spoke again. “Thor? Go ahead.”

He cleared his throat. “Right. Okay, so my brother invaded New York seven years ago,” he said, gesturing at the man next to him, “but he was being controlled by this man named Thanos. He’s a Titan, and he wants these things called Infinity Stones.”

Matt tilted his head at Heather, and she nodded. He felt the Defenders all glance at him in a flash, and winced internally. Based on the heartbeats of a couple of the heroes and aliens, the looks were pretty obvious.

Shit. He wondered if he could leave the explanation to Heather. He didn’t know how much about dragons it was okay to tell people he didn’t trust.

“So Loki tipped us off after we came to New Asgard about Thanos, and I left a year and a half ago to find him. I went to the forges of Nidavellir and made Stormbreaker right after I came to Earth when Asgard was destroyed, because I knew I would need a way to travel easily, but about a month ago, I went back and found the forges destroyed. Thanos used them to make a gauntlet, to control the stones.”

He paused for breath, and the man next to him-oh, so that’s Loki- spoke up. “Thanos is looking for the stones, and he has the gauntlet. He has an army full of Chitauri and Outriders, one that makes the army that came to New York look tame.”

Matt growled under his breath, and the ones around the table who remembered the Battle of New York made similar signs of displeasure at the memories. 

Thor picked the story back up. “When I found Nidavellir destroyed, I decided it was time to come back. Along the way, I found these morons,” and pointed to the group of aliens sitting to the right of the Defenders.

One of the women picked up the story, the one carrying the object that called to Matt. “Thanos raised me and my sister Nebula. He will stop at nothing to find the stones and kill every living thing in the cosmos.”

The woman next to her, a strangely metallic one, nodded and joined in. “He’s still moving slowly. He doesn’t know that we’re aware of his plans. Before we came to Earth, we stopped by the Nova Corp on Xandar and the Collector on Knowhere to keep the two stones that were hidden there safe.” 

Shit. Infinity stones. In the  _ same room _ . That’s what Matt was feeling. They were powerful, almost scary powerful with the energy coming off of them, but he understood the stones, in a way. He wasn’t on edge like he was with Thor or the strange magic cape man. He shot Heather a look, hoping she got the idea, and she sent an agreeing feeling towards the surface of his mind. She felt the pull towards the stones too.

Across the table from the aliens, directly to Peter’s left, the man spoke up and tapped his necklace. “I have a stone too. So that’s three.”

“Four,” said a . . . robot? Maybe? It was made of the same stuff that absorbed sound as Captain America’s shield and Barnes’ arm, and Matt winced at the strange blank spot in his radar. Fuck vibranium. “The mind stone is what allows me sentience.”

“There’s five, actually,” Loki said smoothly. “I have the space stone. Hidden in a pocket dimension that only I can access.” So that’s what the weird rippling around the alien was.

Matt already felt a headache coming on.

“So, just to be clear,” Jessica said sarcastically, “There’s an unstoppable alien coming for six stones, and we have five of them?”

Natasha replied, “We do. That gives us control over what happens next.”

“We have to get them out of New York,” Matt growled. “There’s going to be a fight. We can’t let it happen here.”

There were nods around the table, and one of the aliens said, “We can use an empty planet. I know a few good ones.”

After everyone agreed, Miles nudged Matt to get his attention, and whispered, “Why does this Thanos guy want the stones?”

Matt shrugged, and repeated the question to the table.

One of the aliens raised by Thanos, the metallic one, spat, “He’s obsessed with Death. Thinks that it’s a woman that he’s in love with. He always talked about getting the stones to create an offering for her. We should have pieced together sooner that he wanted to kill the universe to win ‘her’ attention.”

Heather’s heartbeat spiked at the idea of death as a sentient being, and when the alien was done talking, she said quietly, “He’s only half-wrong.”

Everyone’s attention snapped to her, and she explained haltingly, “The infinity gems were the first things that existed in the universe, and the stones created dragons.” At this, a few people breathed in to ask questions, but were either shut down by the friend sitting next to them, or at how unsettled Heather seemed.

“But what I never told anyone was that there was a time before the dragons were created, but after the stones already existed. There were . . . cosmic beings that formed. One was Death. They’re called Celestials.”

The aliens to the right of the Defenders all jumped or let their heartbeats spike, especially the man radiating energy who sat next to the alien woman with an infinity stone.

“If someone were, say, half human, half Celestial,” he said, too casually, “would they be like . . . Death’s nephew?”

Everyone in the room stared at him.

Heather was silent, probably assessing the half Celestial. “Daredevil,” she said suddenly. 

Everyone turned to look at him, and he bit back a groan. “Yes?”

She weighed her words, and said, “You’re a dragon from the reality stone. You can feel the way energy moves. Can you . . . describe it for us? It might give us a better idea of whether we can help the half-Celestial figure out his powers.”

“Guys, my dad  _ exploded _ . I lost my powers when he died.”

Matt shook his head. “You’ve got a lot of energy around you. Not as much as the infinity stones, but a lot. Kind of like the woman in between Clint and the robot. I think you could probably pull off some interesting stuff, given time.”

“They can manipulate matter and energy,” Heather explained. “I don’t think you have the abilities of a true Celestial, but you should be able to do a fair amount.”

About half the hearts in the room sped up, and Matt heard Jessica mutter, “Fuck. I’m so tired of magic bullshit.” Stark unknowingly echoed her sentiment into Banner’s ear across the room.

He sounded excited when he whispered to the alien woman next to him, “Gamora, I’ve still got superpowers!”

“That’s good,” she whispered back.

Gamora. She was the alien with the reality stone. Matt tried to keep the new names he’d learned straight in his head, but he gave up. Too many new people and weird aliens.

Next to the half-Celestial, the tree spoke. “I am Groot.”

“Groot asked if we have a plan on how to attack Thanos,” the small thing said. It was sitting on the tree’s other side, and Matt frowned. Did the tree- Groot- speak a different language? Weird.

Natasha shook her head. “That’s part of what we’re here to figure out today.”

“If Thanos is going to use the gems to instantly destroy the universe, can we use the gems to instantly destroy his army?” the robot asked.

“We would need all six,” Gamora replied. “We only have five.”

A woman Matt wasn’t familiar with sitting next to Heather asked, “Couldn’t we still use the stones against them? Aren’t they supposed to be pretty powerful?”

“That could only be part of a plan,” Steve said calmly. “We need a strategy. We could lure them to a planet that’s uninhabited, for one thing.”

The half-celestial’s heartbeat bumped up. “Hey, the power stone! It’s strong enough to destroy a planet, easily. If we got the army to a random rock, then we could take it out easily.”

“It would still have air support,” Loki pointed out.

Matt used this point to jump into the argument. “So we use the stones to take out the air fleet. I’ve been practicing, I can use my transmutation powers pretty well. I think I’d be able to control the reality stone long enough to turn the army into something harmless.”

“Like frogs,” Peter suggested excitedly.

“Can you show us?” the cloak man asked. “Transmutation is tricky.”

Matt shrugged and touched the table. He reached into his inner fire and quickly, easily changed the table into a bowl of petunias and back again. Ignoring the gasps, he sat back in his chair and wished for some food. Using magic always took a lot out of him.

“That could work,” Natasha said thoughtfully. “You can do that on a large scale?”

He snorted. “On my own? Never. I’m not  _ that _ good at magic. But the stone feels . . . familiar. I’m ninety percent sure I could use it on a large scale,” Matt explained.

Steve leaned forward. “We have a plan for the ground fleet and the air support. We need a backup plan, just in case the stones don’t cover as much ground as we expect them to. Who else can use the stones?”

“Wait!” Gamora said suddenly. “Who would use the power stone?”

“Does it matter?” Stark said curiously.

The half-Celestial’s heartbeat spiked. “Shit, it does. It kind of kills whoever touches it.”

The small- was it a fucking raccoon?- the raccoon added, “We were able to survive by joining hands, probably mostly because Quill’s half Celestial. But we weren’t even close to controlling it.”

“I am Groot.”

“He says that we should pick a different strategy for the ground forces,” The raccoon (it had to be a raccoon, what else could it be?) translated.

One of the strangers said, “Wakanda’s army is most likely big enough to make a dent. How big is Thanos’ army?”

The partially robotic alien woman said, “We don’t know. Thanos never told Gamora or me, and Loki was never trustworthy in Thanos’ eyes.”

Thor’s heartbeat sounded proud of his brother, and Matt suppressed a smile.

Still, it was worrying that they didn’t have any solid numbers on the army.

Peter piped up from next to Matt. “We don’t have to use the stones, right? What about if- okay, you guys know Home Alone? The kid set up traps, right? Nails and glass shards and stuff. What if we did the same thing, but bigger? We could rig up some bombs under the surface and set them off when the- whatyacallem, the Outriders? Set them off when the Outriders land on the surface.”

Steve hummed. “That could work. Stark, do you have the tech for that?”

“We all know Stark can make bombs,” one of the women muttered under her breath. Stark didn’t seem to hear her, but Matt tilted his head curiously and resolved to ask around subtly later. Grudges were good to know when people had to work on a team together.

To the whole table, though, they just heard Stark scoff. “Of course I have the tech for it.”

“That could work then,” Natasha said thoughtfully. “Tech on the surface, magic in the air. We should test how far Daredevil can reach with his magic with the help of the reality stone. If we need to, we can figure out more ways to take down the air support.”

Loki raised the big question. “What about Thanos? He’s strong. He’s the _ Mad Titan _ .”

“We have Infinity Stones. We’ll be fine,” Strange said dismissively. “Any single one of them would be strong enough to destroy him when used properly, even if the other carriers are dead.”

“Who’s leading on the battlefield?” Danny asked curiously.

Bucky snorted. “How ‘bout the nerd who used to read military strategy for fun?” For those unfamiliar, he motioned to Steve, sitting next to him.

The nerd in question shrugged. “If anyone else is more qualified, that’s fine, but I’m happy to do it if I need.”

Around the table, people shook their heads, and Natasha grinned. “It’s settled then. Steve is in charge. If he’s incapacitated, I take the lead. Third is Thor. After that, break into whatever teams you can.”

No one argued.

They kept talking for another hour, working out details, until Nat finally declared that they couldn’t do anything else without more information, so everyone shut up and socialize. And yes, that includes you, Tony, so stop working on prototypes.

Matt appreciated her directness.

After everyone scattered, Miles stood next to Matt, and his heartbeat sounded as lost as Matt felt. In a room full of strangers, he couldn’t read them as easily as he could understand someone familiar.

Didn’t matter. His friends were his priority anyway.

“Webs, how are you doing? I know it can be a lot,” Matt murmured.

“Okay, I guess,” he said. He didn’t sound sure, and Matt raised an eyebrow. “Fine, it’s . . . I’m kinda nervous. We’re fighting an  _ alien army _ . Yikes, y’know?”

Matt nodded understandingly. “You should go home.”

“But-”

“I’m going to send Spidey home too,” he said firmly. “You’re both too young.”

“We fight all the time! Just because I’m nervous doesn’t mean I can’t do it!”

It wasn’t the same. “Webs, this isn’t going to be like breaking up a drug deal or punching muggers. I don’t want to drag a teen into a war.”

Miles’ heart was pounding, and his voice sounded hurt. “This is my fight too!”

“Did you even tell your parents what you were doing?”

“Well . . . I told them the truth! Just- I kind of left out that we were planning a battle in space. And I might have implied that it was just Jess who needed an assist, but the entire Avengers team.”

Matt gave him a Look, and the teen protested, “Hey, I’m not leaving! And you can’t make me!”

“You’re not even an adult yet.”

“I’m  _ staying _ !”

Peter meandered over, drawn to the rising chaos in their little corner. “What’s going on?”

“Daredevil is sending us home!”

Peter immediately laughed. “He’s not going to do that. I’m an adult, and I’ll sneak you into wherever we’re going.”

Miles nodded, appeased by Peter’s plan, but Matt frowned. “Spidey, are you old enough to remember the Battle of New York?”

“Yeah. Course I do.” After a second, Peter caught on to Matt’s line of thinking, and his confusion turned to frustration. “Double D, I know how to fight now. I’m not a scared eleven year old anymore.”

“I knew how to fight during New York,” Matt said sternly. “I was in college, and I had to hide Foggy in a fucking closet so that I could do help the people I could hear  _ dying _ . You both have senses like mine. All you will smell is blood and gore, and you’ll only hear screaming and shouting, and the worst part is trying to ignore it so you don’t get distracted and die,” he whispered fiercely. “Your help isn’t worth the shit you would experience.”

“I don’t want- I  _ won’t _ stand by when I can  _ do  _ something,” Peter said stubbornly.

Matt shook his head, exhausted but with the adrenaline of an argument buzzing in him. Both the spiders were warm on his radar in a way that marked them as a part of his hoard. The thought of either of them getting hurt in an enormous battle, the thought of either of them dying, sent ice creeping up from his gut into his heart.

“Please. Just go home.”

Miles and Peter both shook their heads, and the former said gently, “We’ll take care of each other. Just like we have the last year and a half.”

Matt sighed, and finally relented.  _ Very _ reluctantly. “But tell your parents and May the truth. Not negotiable. They deserve to know, and to try to stop you if they choose.”

Peter shook his head again. Dammit. “I’m going to leave a video, just in case, but what’s the point in worrying her?”

Matt groaned and dropped his head in his hands.

“What?” Miles asked. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

These kids were fucking idiots. “Do you think soldiers enlisting leave without saying goodbye?” Matt asked, as calmly as he could manage.

“No, but-”

“Webs. Tell them. Even if you run off afterwards. But they would rather worry than find out that you fought afterwards.” And in you die, they would want to have tried to stop you, he added silently.

Peter must have made the connection to the unspoken words on his own, because his heart did a flip, and he fell uncharacteristically silent.

Miles didn’t. “Can’t I just leave a message? Why do I have to tell them in person? They’ll try to stop me.”

“You-” Matt lowered his voice, and said, barely audibly, “ _ Miles _ . Listen to me. If you fight, you could get hurt, or worse. If you do, you parents will feel worse not knowing your plans than they would feel if they tried to stop you and you left. Do you understand me?”

“ . . . oh.”

Matt sensed his words sinking in, and brought the conversation to a close. “We all have people we need to talk to before we leave Earth. Please take the chance, and talk to your family.”

Both kids nodded, and the tightness in Matt’s chest loosened a smidge. He didn’t know what he would do if either of them died.

He wouldn’t let them.

He checked their heartbeats one last time for any signs that they would chicken out of contacting their families, and once he was satisfied, he called over the other Defenders.

When all six of them gathered around him, Matt started. “So. How is everyone feeling?”

Jessica snorted. “Like I’m about to go fight in a giant space battle.”

Danny shrugged. “I mean, at least I”m not bored. Are you guys okay over here? You looked upset.”

“We’re fine,” Matt said calmly. “Just reminding the younger ones that secrets don’t work out.” All the other adult vigilantes nodded in understanding.

“Are you sure about the magic?” Luke asked.

“Yeah. It’ll work. And if it doesn’t, I’ll just turn into a dragon and start setting shit on fire.” But it  _ would  _ work. He couldn’t put his friends in danger by failing.

Right. Refocus. “That’s not why I called you over here, actually. I just wanted to remind all of you that you’ve got to make it through this.” Matt gave them all a genuine smile, and added, “I mean, come on. You wouldn’t want to miss the wedding. You’re all invited.”

“Duh. We knew that already,” Jessica said sarcastically. Still, she sounded happy, underneath the bite.

“But now Fogs and I have a date,” he said smugly.

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Colleen assured him. The others nodded their agreement.

“I just wanted to get it out there,” Matt said. Damn, he could nap so hard right now. “Anything else?”

“Just . . . good luck,” Peter said. He put on a breezy voice, but Matt could hear the nerves, and he shot the teen a reassuring smile.

“Luck? Where we’re going, we don’t need ‘luck’.” The movie reference did its job; Peter laughed, and some of the tension bled out of the group at the cheerful sound. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go call my fiance.”

He stepped away from the group with a smile, and fished his burner phone out of his pocket. Dialing Foggy’s number was second nature at this point, and thankfully he picked up almost instantly.

“Is everything okay?” Foggy’s voice instantly tuned out the sea of magic and power surrounding Matt, and he unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re fine, but . . . Well, the thing was bad. We’re leaving Earth to go fight it, but-”

“Leaving  _ Earth _ ?”

“Oh. Yeah. We’ll be back soon though.”

“I guess Karen and I will have to stop teasing you about never leaving Hell’s Kitchen now.”

Matt read the joking for what it was: covering up Foggy’s worry. “We just needed to find a place with no collateral damage. We didn’t want another Battle of New York,” he explained. “So we’re headed to an empty planet.”

In a call, Matt’s hearing was only as good as the phone’s microphone, but he still caught Foggy’s sigh.

“I’m sorry. I wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t need me.”

“I know,” he replied quietly. “I hate it, but I trust you. Come home, okay?”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” Matt promised. “October 19th, remember? I’ll be there.”

“You’re better.” Foggy sounded like he wanted to say more, but didn’t.”

“This isn’t a goodbye,” Matt said firmly. “I’m just keeping you updated. Thanos is trying to get the Infinity stones to kill everyone, and we’re using them to stop him. We have a plan.”

Foggy sighed again, but lighter this time, and his tone turned teasing. “Alright, but this is the last time you save the world. After this, Daredevil’s retiring to spend more time with his fiance.”

Matt chuckled. “Definitely some vacation time, at least.” The noise and magic filling the room started to trickle back in, and his headache came back with a vengeance. “I should probably go. I’ll call or text with updates in a few hours or so. I love you.”

“Love you too,” Foggy said fondly. “Stay safe.”

Matt hung up, and the room immediately seemed louder, more overwhelming. In terms of physical space, it was fine. Stark got a conference room big enough for the dozen or so people. But in his radar . . . he could barely breathe. He needed more time to familiarize himself with the conflicting magic and power.

_ Shit, he might not make it to his wedding. _

The stray thought threw off this carefully controlled senses, and his world on fire flared. Someone’s aura swamped him, and he was so busy sorting it out that he didn’t anticipate the hand that landed on his shoulder.

Matt whirled at the touch and punched them square in the face, and slipped into the hyper-aware headspace he used in a fight.

Shit, that wasn’t right.

He stepped back and raised his hand in the universal sign for surrender- or, well, he hoped it was universal. As he brought his mind back under control, he recognized the alien aura of magic surrounding the half-celestial, who was probably glaring and definitely mad.

“What the hell, man?” Huh. The man sounded more surprised than angry, but Matt stayed ready for a fight anyway.

“I’m sorry,” he said professionally. Make a good second impression, at least. “All the magic crammed into one room put me on edge, and I forgot where I was for a second. I didn’t mean to hit you, you just startled me.”

The alien hesitated, but shrugged. “No worries. I’m Peter Quill. I was wondering if you could tell me anything more about my powers.”

“I have no clue how Celestials work,” Matt said honestly. “Heather though . . . She helped me with my magic. Maybe she can figure something out with you.”

“Thanks.”

“Sorry again for punching you.”

Quill (Matt couldn’t deal with two Peters) chuckled. “At least I’ll win the bet with Gamora that it wasn’t one of us to start the first fight.”

Peter slipped through the crowd to hover by Matt’s elbow. “Did someone say bet? Because I totally should have bet on a Defender starting the first fight. I underestimated the Avengers. But at least Daredevil didn’t win our bet either.”

“You bet on groups?” Quill asked curiously. “We were really only concerned with whether we’d cause trouble first or not.”

Matt left the two Peters behind to chat happily, and Loki stepped into his path.

“My brother has mentioned you,” he said simply.

“He’s talked a lot about you, too,” Matt said cautiously. “He speaks highly of you, but . . . I’ve got to meet you to make my own decision on whether or not I can trust you.”

He laughed. “Not everyone can trust as easily as Thor. Take your time. I actually wanted to talk about my illusions. He hinted that you’d be able to see through them, and I wanted to see what kind of witchery you use.”

Magic rippled in the air, and Matt sensed flaming pillars of magic slipping out from Loki in his radar. Doubles of him, maybe? Fake clones? Didn’t matter. The real Loki was silently slipping away- using magic to mute his steps and the whisper of moving fabric.

The alien couldn’t change the way the temperature fluctuated around him, or the way the air swirled in his path. He either couldn’t change or didn’t think to change the faint smell of metal and food and Asgard sticking to him, but not to his clones. And he definitely didn’t get rid of the steady, strong sound of his heart.

It was an easy game to play.

Matt strode directly up to the real Loki without hesitation. “What’s the verdict, trickster? Figure me out yet?”

He chuckled, and dismissed his illusions. “I have.”

“Really?” he said skeptically.

Loki leaned in slightly and murmured, “Aside from tracking magic with your reality stone magic? A blind man isn’t tricked by visual effects.”

Matt crossed his arms and matched Loki’s volume. “What are you going to do with that information?”

“Keep it safe.”

Matt tilted his head, as if to ask for an explanation, and Loki sighed. “My brother is fond of you. I won’t sabotage one of his playmates.”

Half-truth.

“And?” he said, unimpressed.

“And . . . you seem like a good man. I can respect trying to protect the people you love. I won’t interfere for the worse, and-” he paused, as if debating whether or not to say something else, but eventually continued, “And I might stop by Hell’s Kitchen to talk, if I feel like it.”

Matt nodded. Truth. “I look forward to it.”

Loki slipped off, and Matt took stock of the room.

Oh, no. Incoming.

Gamora stalked over to Matt, and he nodded at her in acknowledgement. Most of his focus was spent ignoring the call of the infinity stone, but a fair chunk of his mind was distracted keeping track of her knives, and the last bit of attention he had was scattered across the room keeping tabs on his team.

Point was, he was caught slightly off guard when she spoke.

"If you misuse the stone, I will kill you," she said levelly. Her heartbeat reassured him that she was telling the truth.

"Good. If I become a danger to my friends, take me out."

She regarded him for a moment more, and nodded. Her voice warmed slightly. "I think it would be interesting to talk to you further, if we both survive this."

What the hell. Why not? "Alright," Matt said with a half-smile. Gamora walked off, and he made his way back to his seat. He could hear Nat murmuring with Nebula about a potential idea, and he turned away at the sound of somber tones.

After another five minutes, in which Matt mostly tried to ignore his headache, Nat clapped and called for order. The groups trickled back to their seats, and she gave them the plan.

Hopefully, it would work.

_ Natasha’s orders were straightforward.  _

_ “Thor, take Daredevil to an empty planet to test out the reality stone. Strange will go with you both to supervise the magic.” _

_ Jessica snorted. “Those idiots aren’t going alone.” _

The Bifrost was more disorienting than an ordinary portal. Thor brought Matt, Jess, and Strange to a forested world, and Matt stumbled as soon as they landed.

“Are you alright?” Jess asked, dropping her usual apathy.

He held up a finger in the universal “gimme a sec” symbol. Shit, that was weird. All twisty. He felt the rushing pathway spiral and branch. Matt took a couple deep breaths, and as soon as he didn’t feel like throwing up, he grumbled, “It felt like a river. Branching and  _ fast _ . And . . . I think we brushed up against other worlds.”

Thor’s heartbeat tapped a little. “You sensed the Yggdrasil!”

“The what?” Jess said skeptically.

“It’s the World Tree. It holds the Nine Realms in its branches, and keeps the worlds together. The Norse only knew of the tree that contained Midgard, but there’s a whole forest holding the universe, connected by intertwining branches and vines.”

Strange’s heartbeat sounded interested. “Fascinating. What happens when the trees die?”

“They don’t die!” Thor laughed. “They come from Groots who passed on, but once they are a part of the Great Forest, they become woven into the universe, and are as eternal as Death herself.”

“So-”

Jess groaned. “Alright. It’s like listening to Danny. Please can you do your magic thing so we can get out of here?”

Thor handed the stone to Matt, and the second he touched it, things  _ changed. _

Matt’s inner fire, the power he used to transmute items, was just a drop in the ocean. Everything- his pieced-together radar, his dragon and human forms, the other three people with him- it all clicked. Everything made sense; he understood what it  _ was _ .

On his own, it took focus and effort to change something as small as a table. But with the stone . . . 

He reached out and gently reshaped the trees. They weren’t too different from hummingbirds, after all. Alone, the swarm of wingbeats would have interfered with his radar, but with the stone, everything was clear. Seventy five thousand and twenty five birds flew. Seventeen thousand, seven hundred and eleven of them were slightly injured from damage given to the trees. Even the fallen logs turned into dead birds, carpeting the ground. It all made sense. It-

No. It didn’t. This wasn’t how reality should be. Matt only changed a square kilometer, but he knew he could have gone further. So easy to overreach. He exhaled, and the forest was restored. In the same breath, he unclenched his fingers and dropped the stone to the mossy ground.

As soon as it wasn’t touching him, he wobbled.

“Shit,” Jessica said under her breath. She swooped in and braced him. “Strange, call for pickup.”

The sorcerer glanced away from the magic he was manipulating around a tree. “Already?”

“Something’s wrong with Horns, so yes,  _ already _ ,” she snapped.

“I’m fine,” Matt mumbled. “Just dizzy.”

“You burned all your energy handling the stone,” Strange said dismissively. “Eat something and you’ll be fine.”

“We don’t have any food here,” Jess growled. She sounded like she was an inch away from throttling some sense into the sorcerer, and Matt patted her shoulder reassuringly.

“Then go back without me. I can portal back.”

Thor nodded, and summoned the Bifrost. Matt groaned at the whirling portal, but stepped into it with Jess’ help.

Fuck, he hated magic sometimes.

_ We can set up the battlefield to be the say we want, but that’s useless without Thanos. We have to lure him here, and Nebula has an idea for how. _

Nebula left in her spaceship. Matt wasn’t sure how well it would work, but hopefully the alien knew her adoptive father well enough to manipulate him. She had volunteered to try to kill him, but if she got caught, she would let slip that several people with stones were gathering on a neutral planet to discuss the threat.

Hopefully he didn’t see through her, but at least if he did, they were planning a battle anyway. It should still work out.

Key word: Should, he thought grimly to himself.

_ Natasha’s voice was serious when she added a word of warning. “When we get there, remember. This is a war. If you have to leave now, we won’t judge, but you have to accept that if you step onto that battlefield, you might not come back.” _

Matt listened as people arrived on the battlefield in a mix of spaceships and portals. Around him, the Defenders were clustered, and he listened as the armies of Wakanda and the remaining fighters from Asgard spilled through portals to join the heroes and vigilantes. He listened to the hum of the reality stone.

It was whispering, but he couldn’t make out the words.

“We’ve got this,” Peter insisted, half to his friends, half to himself.

Miles nodded. “Yeah. Totally.”

Kid sounded nervous, and why not? Matt nudged his shoulder, and Miles bumped him back. Thankfully, some of the tension eased out of him at the contact.

Jessica inhaled to speak, but Matt caught the whine of engines high in the sky.

“Shit, they’re here.”

Across the crowd, a few others must have sensed the spaceship’s arrival, because a silence fell over the crowd of fighters.

_ Daredevil, once all of the ships arrive, get rid of them. You’re a one time use, so make sure to wait until all of them are there. _

Matt ignored the aliens jumping out of ships, and the ensuing explosions that rocked the earth. He only had control over his part of the plan, so he pulled his attention away from the action and focused on the sky. When he couldn’t hear the whine of incoming ships anymore and the sound of engines blanketed the sky, Matt took a deep breath. The whole world seemed to slow down, and he grinned.

This should be good.

The ships, the giant space whales, they were all the same. Matt breathed out, and as he did, he pushed the energy  _ out _ .

It rippled across the battlefield, and he tilted his head to better appreciate the sounds of an army falling apart at the seams.

He had turned all of the air support, and all the aliens that hadn’t yet managed to jump out of the ships, into butterflies.

Matt sighed slightly, and let the stone drop.

Ugh, it was even worse than the last time. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he dropped to his knees like a puppet with its strings cut.

_ I know it saps your energy. Be prepared. _

Thank god for Natasha’s common sense, Matt thought, as he dug in his pocket and tugged out an energy bar and a little bottle of water. It felt weird taking a break from fighting to sit back and eat, but if he didn’t take a break, he would have to deal with either passing out or his friends yelling at him for irresponsibility (or both), and that didn’t sound terribly appealing.

He scooped the infinity stone into a pocket, being careful not to open his heart to it, and took in the fight while he chewed. The numbers were decimated by the bombs and the reality stone, thankfully. A couple people stood out in his radar- Strange was destroying swaths of aliens by using the time stone (was he aging them until they were dust? Matt resolved to stay on Strange’s good side, or stay away) and to his left, Thor was using his axe and crackling lighting in concert to kill aliens.

He finished his bar and water, but stayed in place until he caught what Peter and Miles were up to. The pair was fighting alongside the Defenders, and with a hint of pride, Matt recognized tactics he’s shown them for using against a large number of opponents. They were fine.

Matt shifted into a dragon and took a deep breath, stifling the slight dizziness. He oriented himself towards his friends and spread his wings. Here goes.

_ When you’ve recovered, join in. We could use a dragon on our side. _

Fifteen minutes later, Matt (back in his human form) and the Defenders waded through the battlefield to reach where the survivors were collecting.

“Is that . . . Are we done? Did we win?” Peter said tiredly.

“Not yet,” Luke said grimly.

Even through the stench of bombs and alien bodies, Matt could sense him.

Thanos was here.

The first one to react was Captain America. He growled and ran at Thanos at full speed. Everyone watched, aghast, as he hurled his shield. The Titan easily deflected it, but Steve followed it with a jump and a punch thrown directly into his left eye.

Thanos barely staggered, and grabbed Steve’s arm.

“ _ No! _ ” Bucky howled, somewhere halfway across the battlefield. Matt heard his heavy footsteps sprinting towards the conflict, but he and everyone who started moving froze at Thanos’ next words.

“Give me the stones, or this man dies.”

Nat stepped forward. “We can’t do that.”

Thanos readjusted his grasp, shifting Steve to one hand, and pulled out a sword with the other. “One more chance.”

Bucky rushed forward again. He must have seen something Matt missed, though, because he stumbled to a halt. His heartbeat sounded distraught, and Matt winced on his behalf. If Thanos had Foggy . . . 

He shut that line of thought down before he set something on fire.

“Such a pity,” Thanos mused. “He had spirit. But all living things meet Death in the end. Tell her I said hello.”

He raised his arm to cut Steve down, but a swirl of portal magic appeared. It draped itself over Thanos, and winked out of existence as fast as it started, taking the Titan’s head with it.

The dominating heartbeat was gone.

Thanos was dead.

Matt barely had time to process it before another presence appeared on the battlefield, standing right next to the body.

Of course, he wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t confront it. He stepped forward, and barked, “Who are you?” 

The world froze around him, and the presence coalesced into a human shape. Matt scowled. After all this trouble to kill one man, and something else has to show up? It didn’t even have a fucking heartbeat. “What the hell is going on? Why is everyone else frozen?”

“I asked Time to pause the world for this conversation. She was happy to help me find out why you can sense me, even though I didn’t choose to appear to you.” It was a woman’s voice, he thought, but not quite human.

Matt didn’t hesitate to explain. The sooner she got answers, the sooner she could tell him what was actually happening. “I can sense that you’re there because you make reality ripple. But who  _ are _ you? Why are you here?”

“I’m Death,” she said gently. “I’m here to collect Thanos.”

“You’re . . . Death.” Shit. Okay. This was new, but she didn’t sound like she was lying, despite the lack of a heartbeat. “Why haven’t I sensed you before?”

“I don’t usually collect people’s souls personally. I prefer to delegate. This is an exception.”

Shit. Okay. “So Thanos was telling the truth?”

“In a way. He wasn’t delusional in thinking that I existed, but in thinking that I had feelings for him.”

“To be fair, I think his point was that he wanted you to have feelings for him. It’s why he tried to wipe out the whole universe.,” Matt said warily. “You’re not going to try to . . . finish his plan?”

She laughed, and stepped closer to him. Despite her nature, Matt didn’t back up to keep his distance. “Matt, I don’t want people to die before their time. I want you all to live long, happy lives, and come to me without fear. I am patient.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” It was surprisingly easy to talk to Death, and a corner of Matt’s mind marveled at how easily words came to him. “I guess, you’re immortal, right? May I ask if you know what happened to the soul dragons?

She winced. “They are in the Soul Stone.”

“Where is it? How can I pull them out of it?” he said immediately.

“It’s a long story,” Death said delicately. “It would be . . . difficult. But I like you. I haven’t spoken to anyone mortal as bold as you in a long time.”

“Thanks?”

“I have an idea.”

He stepped a little closer. “What is it?”

She shrugged. “You die.”

Matt backpedaled. Shit, shit, shit. Don’t trust Death. “I don’t love that idea. At least, not for another forty-five years or so. I have Foggy, and my friends.”

“I would not take you from Foggy, just like no one can separate me from Time. If you die and leave behind your physical form, I can show you, well. Everything you’ve asked about, and more. If I bring you into the universe, I can explain the problem with the soul stone, and the dragons, and why they vanished. As soon as your quest is over, my sister will bring you back to life. No harm done.”

“Why would you help me?”

Matt couldn’t see Death, but he could hear the wistful smile in her voice. “There’s two main answers for that. One is that I remember the dragons, and I remember when they chose mortality. You’re part of that, and I want to show you what that means. The second is that I miss the soul dragons. It’s time that they are free.”

At the reminder of his goal, Matt nodded decisively. “Alright. I’m in.”

“Good!” Death said, pleased. He opened his mouth to ask about what happened next,

and then everything  _ shifted _ .

He shed his skin, was one of the abstract dragons, like in the memory Heather showed him. He was more energy than matter, more movement than solid. 

Death led the way, her physical form gone, and Matt didn’t need her to explain that this was him dying. She led him up into the sky, covering light years in a single gliding step, and began to show him the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the scene at the end is actually the first scene I wrote for this fic. I'm pretty excited for what's coming! Up next: people are fucking SAD (but a little bit down the pipeline, we see what Matt's going to get up to with Death!)  
> Anyway big thanks to the team red discord, because in the first draft, Death was going to be all spooky and mysterious and speak in all caps (like Good Omens. i love that book) but I started talking about the different relationships Celestials have with each other (yes, I'll get to that in a little while too, I swear! and I'm super excited!) and someone suggested that they all have big mom energy. i fucking LOVE that and I'm running with it. Matt's going to have brunch with Death every other Tuesday and no one can stop me! *evil laughter*


	4. Intermission: A Year and a Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt goes on a quest, and finally finds some answers.

Matt drifted towards a young star, and peered inside. The soul stone floated in the heart of the star, and as he curled around it, the star seemed to shrink. It was easy to reach in with his talons and scoop up the stone, but as he brought the gem to eye level, he was thrust into emptiness.

Space was never empty, there was always sound and movement and warmth and cold swirling around him. This was a true void, and Matt hated it.

A presence flared to life in front of him, and he bowed his head. A Celestial.

“Who are you?” she said commandingly.

“My name is my own,” he said carefully, “but you may call me Daredevil.”

She sounded thoughtful when she said, “You’re the dragonet Death was telling us about.”

“A question for a question. Who are you?” Matt asked in return.

“I am Fate. I protect the soul stone from those who would seek it with ill intent. Why have you come, little dragon?”

“I’m here to free the soul dragons. Do you control fate, or is there free will?”

Her voice sounded pleased that he asked. “The universe has free will. Why are you going to free the dragons?”

He tilted his head at her curiously. “Because they shouldn’t be imprisoned for eternity. Is this a test?”

“Yes. You could use the stone’s power for acts you cannot even imagine. Would you be satisfied with just releasing the dragons?”

Matt huffed. “Yes. Why do you keep the stone for yourself, and doubt others’ motives?”

Fate laughed, a noise that cut through the void. “Good,” she said approvingly. “Very well, you may have your answers freely. I care for the stone to protect the dragons. They were imprisoned because we Celestials failed them. I will not make the same mistake twice.”

“I’m not here to hurt anyone.”

“Do you even know what happened, all those years ago?”

“Only some of it.”

“To understand what happened, you must understand the nature of the Celestials.” She placed a thread in his talons. “Follow this back to the beginning.”

Matt flew in the direction the string was coming from, and eventually emerged into a section of space he’d never been in before. Behind him, Fate explained what he couldn’t see.

“This was the beginning,” she said softly. “Back when the universe was still being born.”

Matt felt magic emerging. “What is that?”

“That was us. The Celestials. This is the first era. Before the stones were created. There were only five of us, at first. Death, Life, Time, Magic, and me.”

“And after the stones were created?”

She gestured, and he felt the stones burst into existence, followed by dragons. “When the dragons were born, so was the second era of Celestials. Passion, Pride, Desire. Each of these Celestials has facets. Pride has gone by Confidence, but also by Ego. Desire is Hope, but also Greed.”

“Pride feels like the energy that surrounded that half-Celestial.”

“Yes, Pride became . . . obsessed. For the lower tiers, when they spend too long in a physical form, they become twisted towards one extreme. Out of balance. She forgot who she was, and became only Ego. After her physical form was destroyed, she returned to herself. She was quite embarrassed, too. Hasn’t worked up the nerve to talk to her son yet.”

“Was she the one who shut away the dragons?”

Fate didn’t answer, instead cooing, “Oh, Death and Time are meeting! They’re such a lovely couple. It didn’t happen right away of course, but what’s a few eons between friends?”

“Fate.”

She sighed, and twisted the threads. “This is when the trouble started.”

They appeared on a leafy jungle planet, and Matt sneezed. Gnats in his nose.

“That’s Passion,” she said sadly. “She can be Love, but she can also be Hate. She grew jealous of Life and Death’s power.”

Matt listened as Passion appeared in front of a soul dragon, and asked, “Would you help me with something?”

Fate kept going. “She started to wonder if they were tied to the soul stone like dragons were. She experimented on the bond between the dragons and the stone.”

Before them, the unlucky dragon said enthusiastically, “Sure! What can I help you with?”

“Just stay still.”

The hum of magic enveloped the clearing, and when Matt’s ears cleared, the heartbeat of the dragon was gone.

“Hate imprisoned the dragons within the stone. At first she went one by one, but it only took her a few tries to find out how to summon all of the soul dragons into the stone at once. She would have trapped all the other dragons in the different stones, but the surge of power caught our attention, and Life went to go investigate and address the problem.”

“Why did she think that it would work on Life and Death?”

“Because they can affect a creature’s soul. She tried to force Life into the stone, but it didn’t work. She’s a much stronger Celestial, and wounded Hate.”

“Wounded?” Matt asked. How do you wound a Celestial?

Fate picked up on the vague question, and explained, “Celestials reincarnate. If I am killed, I will be born again. You can’t kill a force of nature.”

“So Passion is still around?”

Fate laughed. “Yes, of course. We forgave her.” The scene around them slowly faded until they were back in Fate’s void.

“Can’t she release the dragons?”

“The stone is . . . tricky. You’re a warrior. You know how much easier it is to wound than it is to heal.”

Matt thought of Claire, and the hard work she put in at the hospital, and nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you understand why I’m wary of people using the stones?”

He shrugged. “I don’t care about the stone. I just want to help the dragons inside it.”

She was silent for a long moment, and eventually nodded. “Then go in peace. Do not take the soul stone or hurt the dragons inside it.”

“Thank you.”

He blinked, and the void was gone. The noise of the stars was back, and the soul stone was in his claws. He pressed it to his heart, and the world dissolved into emptiness again.

When the stone spoke, it reverberated through Matt, and he jumped slightly in surprise. YOU HAVE COME TO FREE THE DRAGONS.

Matt nodded, and remembered the rule Death had given him. Leave no loopholes. “I’ll give you my magic for a single month in return for you freeing the dragons, forever.”

The stone sounded thoughtful when it replied. NO. YOU WILL JOIN THEM FOR A YEAR AND A DAY. WHEN THAT TIME IS UP, YOU AND THE DRAGONS WILL ALL BE SET FREE, FOREVER.

“What about my family? I can’t leave them for that long.”

NO TIME WILL PASS OUTSIDE OF THE STONE.

Matt repeated the words in his mind, checking for traps, but in the end, he said, “I accept.”

He was brought into the stone, and for the first time in who-knew-how-long, he felt the weight of a physical form. He shifted into his human form, just to see if he could, but the sudden loss of his scales, claws, and fire unsettled him, and he switched back quickly.

The ground under him was smooth and felt like glass, but it didn’t reflect sound the same way glass did. He sighed, and picked a direction. A year and a day to kill, so he might as well start walking.

Eventually (an hour? A day? He wasn’t getting tired or hungry) he heard something breathing on the horizon.

A dragon was here.

Matt broke into a run, and raced forward. He got about a hundred feet away, and slowed. Caution might be smart. 

“Hello?” he called. “Who are you?”

He heard a faint humming, but the tune was eerie and put him on edge. It wasn’t human music. Matt crept closer, and realized the dragon was gazing upward- were there stars he couldn’t see? The soul stone was empty of anything except the glassy ground and the dragons. He hadn’t even thought about the possibility of visible stars.

A creeping feeling in his gut told him there weren’t any stars.

“Who are you?”

“Shhh.”

The dragon seemed uninterested in anything more, and Matt turned away. If there was one dragon, there were more. He would just have to go find one willing to talk.

He walked

and walked

and walked.

The time slipped away from Matt. In New York, he didn’t have much spare time, and he was never alone. Even when he was by himself, he had a whole city of noise to keep him company.

He hated this silence.

There was no smell, either, no familiar dirt and grime. He couldn’t taste Thai food on the breeze. He felt adrift, and his mind wandered, with no particular cohesion to his thoughts.

A dragon.

Matt didn’t run to this one. He took a moment to collect himself (how long had he been walking?), and called out, “Hello?”

This dragon turned to look at him with the whisper of scales sliding against scales. “Hi! Can you believe it?”

At least this one was friendly? “Believe what?”

“There’s so many creatures! Fish, and plants, and little things that I don’t even know how to explain! I  _ love _ life on planets.”

Shit. His gut was right- the stars were as non-existent as whatever ocean this dragon was seeing.

Wait, seeing? “Can you taste the water? Is it salty?”

The dragon let out a small noise of confusion, but shrugged slightly and cupped her claws. There was no water in her hands, but when her tongue flicked out, she laughed in delight. “It is! How did you know? Have you been here before? I thought I was the first one here!”

The illusions weren’t sight-based then. Must be whatever spell Passion cast to get them in here.

Still, probably better that they weren’t stuck in purgatory like he was. A year and a day was a whole lot more palatable than millenia trapped.

Didn’t mean it was good though.

He kept walking

and walking

and walking

IT HAS BEEN A YEAR AND A DAY. YOU ARE RELEASED.

Matt almost sobbed in relief. “Let me out,” he croaked, voice rusty from disuse.

His heart beat once, and he was out in the familiar warmth of space. He was back to being immaterial, and he took a few deep breaths. The hum of space was back, and he frowned. There weren’t any heartbeats.

Where were the dragons?

Fury flared in him and he scooped up the soul stone again. “What happened?” he hissed. “Where are the dragons? We had a deal!”

THEY ARE SPREAD ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. I RETURNED THEM TO WHEREVER THEY WERE STOLEN FROM.

“Alright,” Matt said, still on edge. He wasn’t going to let his guard down until he could talk to a Celestial he trusted.

Fate appeared before him again, and after a moment of adjusting to the new presence, he handed the stone over. “Good timing.”

“I was waiting for you to emerge,” she explained, softly and fondly. “The dragons have been rewoven into the tapestry. You’ve done it.”

Matt let out a sigh, and with the mission accomplished, exhaustion settled into him. He felt small when he asked, “Can you take me home?”

Fate floated closer and laid a cool, comforting hand on the top of his head. “Yes. You’ll see your family soon.”

She breathed out, and they were back on the frozen battlefield. Death was waiting for them.

“You’ve done so well,” she said proudly. “It’s time for your reward.”

“Reward?” Matt said in confusion.

She gestured, and a new presence took form.

Matt’s breath caught in his throat, and he shifted back into his human form without a second thought. He stumbled forward.

“Dad?”

Jack’s familiar heartbeat filled his ears, and he closed the distance between them without hesitation, folding him into his arms. “Matty, I’m so proud of you.”

Matt buried his face in his dad’s shoulder. He smelled just like he remembered- the smell that had long since faded from the robe he kept safe. He could barely get words out. “But . . . I fight.”

“You fight to protect people.” His dad’s hug was firm and warm, and his heartbeat was steady. “Matty, you helped save the _ universe _ . But even if you did become a boxer like me, I could never be disappointed in you.”

Truth.

Matt held onto his dad. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, Matty.”

Jack squeezed him tight one more time, and reluctantly let go. He vanished between one heartbeat and the next, and Matt took a moment to cry.

He didn’t know how long he stood there, but he glanced at Peter, knelt over his body, and Death stepped forward. “It’s time, isn’t it?” he asked quietly.

“You know it is,” she said gently.

“And you can’t do that again, can you.” It wasn’t a question, but she still answered.

“No. This was . . . an exceptional case.”

Matt hesitated, but gave Death a light, brief hug. “Thank you. For everything, not just Dad.”

She nodded, and when she spoke, it was with fondness in her voice. “Let’s get you back to the rest of your family.”


	5. Acto Two: I'd Hate For This To Drag-On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt's finally accomplished his quest, and Thanos is finally dead!

Peter’s mind was spinning. Thanos was dead. He didn’t know whether he wanted to cheer or throw up, Miles was next to him, breathing hard, and Peter decided on celebration. He turned to Miles and opened his mouth to say something, he wasn’t sure what, but-  
His instincts screamed at him to turn around, and he and Miles both spun. He frantically searched for the danger, but there was nothing, what was going on, what was wrong?  
His eyes landed on his friend just as Matt growled, “Who are you?”  
And then he collapsed.  
Peter went blank. He wasn’t aware of his movement, but he ended up kneeling next to Matt. Not again. He couldn’t lose someone again. There were arms pulling him back, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Jessica’s jacket sleeves. Someone was saying something, but it didn’t matter. He ignored them and watched as Strange checked for a pulse.  
The doctor said something calmly and started CPR.  
No.  
This wasn’t happening.  
Peter ripped off his mask to catch his breath, but the smell of blood and gore just made it worse. He wanted to be anywhere but a battlefield, but he couldn’t tear himself away from Matt.   
Matt was so still. That wasn’t how he was supposed to be.   
Peter wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there, but time snapped back into focus when Strange stepped back and shook his head. The panic leached out of Peter, and the numbness crept back in to settle in his gut.  
Matt was dead, and there was nothing Peter could do about it.  
When he finally pieced himself together enough to listen to the conversation, Danny’s words were enough to send him reeling again.  
“The Hand . . . We’ll have to cremate him.”  
Jessica, behind him, sighed. “Not yet. Nelson’s got to see the body, or it’ll never feel real.”  
Peter tore himself out of her loose grip, but the sight of Miles crying jolted him out of his shock, and he refocused. New mission. Help Miles.  
With a purpose in mind, he felt detached enough from his emotions to monitor the conversation. Heather, Thor, Nat, and Clint were nearby, but were letting the Defenders have some space. Strange had left. Heather . . . was stepping forward.  
“I can cremate him.”  
“Bring him to New Asgard,” Luke said quietly, nodding towards Thor. “He’ll be safe from the Hand there.”  
Loki appeared out of nowhere and opened a portal. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said awkwardly. “He seemed like a good man.”  
Peter tuned out the adults again and slipped over to Miles. “Hey.”  
“He’s gone,” the teen whispered.  
Shit, this was the first time Miles had lost someone.  
It never got easier.   
Peter opened his mouth to comfort him, when his spider sense went off again. He turned to Matt’s body, dreading what could possibly be worse, when Matt burst into flames.   
Everyone leapt back in horror.  
And then, still surrounded by fire, Matt sat up.

At this, Peter yelped, but threw himself forward. Jessica lunged to grab him, but he was already hugging Matt before she could pull him back from the fire.  
It wasn’t burning, just warm. Like drinking a mug of cocoa with Aunt May and Uncle Ben in the winter.  
He cried into Matt’s shoulder, and he felt arms come up to embrace him. Miles was only a second behind him, and the trio cried in the middle of flames on the battlefield.  
“We thought you died,” Peter whispered.  
He felt tears soaking into his hair, and Matt’s voice was heavy when he replied, “I did.”

When he got back to New York, Foggy enveloped him in a hug. Matt melted into his embrace, and Foggy didn’t mention anything when he began to cry onto his shoulder.   
Everyone noticed the surface changes- Matt was a little clingier, even more sensitive to noises, and refused to answer questions, but Jess pulled Foggy aside to let him know that Matt had a newfound tendency to keep a hand on a wall, or table, or whoever was nearest. Danny pulled him aside to tell him that Matt’s aura was weak, and to take care of him. Miles pulled him aside to ask if Matt was going to be okay.

They were laying in bed later that week, and Matt finally began to talk.  
“It was . . . empty. I met Death, and she helped me find a way to free the dragons. But I spent a year trapped in a void.”  
Foggy scooped him into his arms again, and Matt pressed close. He had his friends and family, and that would be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit guys, it's finally DONE. Originally, Act Two was going to be a l o t longer, but honestly, I've been beating my head against a brick wall with this chapter and I just wanted it done. That said, just because I didn't WRITE Matt's recovery doesn't mean I haven't thought about it! Just that I don't think I can give the story what it deserves (but if anyone's still reading and is interested, feel free to give it a shot! just make sure to let me know so I can read it!). In the next week or so, I'll post a last story in this series, which has all the bits of stuff that never made it into the main plot line (including gays and baby dragons), so stay tuned :)


End file.
